


My Dinosaur's Keeper

by whimsicalwombat



Series: Fido of the Wilderness [2]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Fido the Dinosaur, Gen, I don't even know how to classify this nonsense, and some time traveling, but it's Samar and a dinosaur, what more do you want from me?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 04:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10936944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalwombat/pseuds/whimsicalwombat
Summary: Once again Samar was regretting her cynicism. She had thought that being transported back in time and spending some forty eight or so hours with an orphaned Apatosaurus, would be the end of considering anything farfetched. That, however, was before the man responsible for sending her back in time, demanded that 'the pretty lady agent with the curly hair who fell for his trap' visit him in prison for an interview.And now Fido was trampling around in the lower, open room of the Post Office –the room with Reddington's unbreakable box, to be specific.At this point, she was convinced that she was never going to deem anything 'farfetched' ever again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> NamelesslyNightlock, I swear this one is all your fault. :P

Dinosaurs.

That was what suddenly appeared in the Post Office -well, _one_ dinosaur, anyway.

 _Fido_.

Once again Samar was regretting her cynicism. She had thought that being transported back in time and spending some forty eight or so hours with an orphaned Apatosaurus, would be the end of considering anything farfetched. That, however, was before the man responsible for sending her back in time, demanded that 'the pretty lady agent with the curly hair who fell for his trap' visit him in prison for an interview.

And now Fido was trampling around in the lower, open room of the Post Office –the room with Reddington's unbreakable box, to be specific. All because the Blacklister who had sent her back in time claimed he had hoped she would die there, leaving behind a body that would confuse archaeologists for millions of years to come, and even perhaps sparking an evolutionary war to destroy humanity for good.

But of course, the taskforce was stronger and far cleverer than that. Samar had miraculously survived the weather and fauna long enough with Fido at her side, while Aram had managed to crack the time machine and travel back to bring her home to the present. With the evil genius' plan for war thwarted, he had to taunt them with the existence of a partner still out there with another machine, who would bring a dinosaur back to the present to panic the world's population instead.

Samar hadn't believed him. None of them had, in fact.

She was sprinting downstairs to the box room, well ahead of Liz and Ressler, and desperate to calm down the confused, panicking Apatosaurus who was trampling everything in terror, before any other agents harmed him.

At this point, she was convinced that she was never going to deem anything 'farfetched' ever again.

'Put your weapons _down_ ,' Samar yelled at the group of them as she rounded the corner into the room. Her hands were raised slightly in some kind of reassuring, unthreatening gesture, and she passed quickly through the group of agents, marching straight towards Fido. The blue-ish grey, long-necked dinosaur had grown significantly since she had left him behind just a couple of months ago... But still he recognised her.

He recognised her voice first, his trampling feet falling suddenly still, and his head turning to face where her voice came from as soon as it sounded. Samar moved forwards close enough to rest both hands gently on the base of his neck if she raised them high enough, and the dinosaur let out a noise she had only heard from him once before –the same desperate, miserable wail that had erupted from his throat at the sight of his parents' bodies mauled by more carnivorous creatures. He was confused by his new, modern surroundings, and terrified of the dozen or so yelling FBI agents. His long neck immediately coiled down, wrapping around Samar and burying his face firmly against the top of her head. Samar ran her hand gently along Fido's neck, murmuring any soothing noise she could think of to the frightened creature, but the other agents in the room took no comfort from his sudden stillness.   

'There is a _dinosaur_ in-' began the agent who appeared to be leading the team, but Samar quickly cut him off.  
'-A _herbivorous_ dinosaur,' she sharply corrected. 'He doesn't attack unless he feels threatened. Otherwise he's completely calm and gentle.' She swivelled on the spot, still with Fido wound around her, to plead with the agent who had spoken; 'so just put those weapons down.' The agent paused, eyeing her warily for a moment.

It must have been a strange sight to the other agents in the room who didn't know her and who had little to no knowledge of her previous encounter with Fido; an agent who seemed completely comfortable and natural with an actual, live _dinosaur._.. Right there in the present.

'What if he attacks you?' The lead agent asked, furrowing his brow in his uncertainty. Naturally, there was no FBI procedure or policy for handling sudden dinosaur appearances. Still, as Ressler and Liz ran into the room behind them, all the agents still had their weapons drawn and pointed directly at Fido. Needless to say, that did little to keep either him or Samar calm.  
'He won't.' There must have been something particularly firm about her tone, for the agents surrounding her and Fido began to shift cautiously on their feet, glancing back and forth between her and their leader.  
'We can't just let him free,' the lead agent weakly tried to protest, 'people will-'  
'-I didn't say don't keep him _contained_ until we can send him back _,_ ' Samar interjected yet again, 'just don't _frighten_ him in the meantime.' There was a pause, where a breath caught anxiously in Samar's throat as the lead agent appeared to be thinking it over. Finally, he lowered his weapon and returned it to his holster, hesitantly nodding to the other agents to do the same.

Still, Fido stood there wrapped around her and terrified by his surroundings... But he was quiet, and his feet remained firmly in place.

If they could just keep him contained until they figured out how to send him back –preferably _before_ anyone outside the building found out he was there- and keep him calm enough that he didn't accidentally escape his containment in terrified trampling... They might just be able to keep the public blissfully oblivious yet again.

/*/*/*/*

The connected, empty warehouses next to the Post Office that the Bureau also owned as potential building expansions were quickly opened up. Their floors were dug out, the ground below lowered at least one full storey further down still, and then covered in plant life that they deemed the closest modern match to what Fido was used to. It was a mammoth operation that Samar would never have thought possible for the Bureau to complete in just a few hours until she witnessed it with her own eyes. She sat with Fido as he curled up on the box room floor, keeping him calm while they watched the workers move the ground with their construction machines, through the gap in the wall between the box room, and the warehouses... Until finally, towards the evening, there was a two warehouse-wide space that was deep enough to form a sort of below-ground, open-topped, zoo-like enclosure for Fido, with a crude, temporary control room that overlooked it just like the one that overlooked the box room.

Warily, she led Fido down into the enclosure, glancing around with a raised eyebrow.

She dropped her hand from his side, prompting the dinosaur to slowly amble about his new space, sniffing his surroundings, though still never straying too far from her.

There was a small structure at the end of the enclosure that caught her attention; it appeared to be a sort of pre-fabricated room that had been assembled there, with a tiny bathroom and bedroom.

Clearly, they had taken her insistences that the best and most helpful thing she could do for the case was to stay with Fido at all times and keep him calm, all too seriously... Not that taking her seriously was really a bad thing, so to speak.

'What do you think, buddy?' She murmured to Fido beside her, 'comfortable enough for a couple of days until we get this sorted out?' The dinosaur, despite his huge size, looked timid beside her. His feet shuffled closer together, and the base of his neck ducked down to push his shoulders up in tense nerves. His snout stayed close to her, hovering just off her shoulder and following her after the few seconds of sniffing out the space. He was still frightened by the strange environment, and she was his only comfort.  
'It might be longer than that,' a familiar voice sounded from behind her. Samar turned on the spot, eyeing Ressler entering the enclosure behind her, Aram scurrying along just a few steps behind again, and Cooper finally bringing up the rear. She furrowed her brow in confusion, instinctively resting a reassuring hand against Fido's leg without even realising it.  
'What do you mean?'  
'The original time machine that sent you back, the one that we now have locked up in evidence,' Aram hurriedly explained as he caught up. 'It's too small to send him back, or rather... Fido's mass is too big for it to transport.' Samar glanced curiously back and forth between Aram and Fido for a moment. The dinosaur, recognising two of the three latest people to enter his enclosure but still not knowing them overly well, tried to hover cautiously behind her, pushing his snout into the back of her shoulder.  
'Then how did he get here?' She asked, just managing to dig her feet into the ground enough stop herself from being toppled forwards.  
'Either the partner's time machine is bigger than the one we have-' Aram shrugged hesitantly as he spoke '-or he also has some kind of a shrink ray.'  
'There is _no_ such thing as shrink rays,' Ressler scoffed in response, so quickly in fact that it almost seemed as if they'd had the conversation already.  
'You said there was no such thing as a time machine either-' Aram shot back, just as quickly.  
'- _Guys_ ,' Samar sharply interjected, and both fiercely argumentative faces that seemed all too readily poised to continue bickering, fell quiet. She eyed them both sternly for a moment, giving them the second to notice the way their arguing had caused Fido to begin backing away, before turning to Aram once more; 'Aram, can you alter the original one so that it _does_ work?'

Aram shuffled awkwardly back and forth on his feet for a moment.

'I can,' he warily began, 'but I don't know how long it'll take me to do it.' He held her gaze, as Samar bit her lip, silently thinking that over.  
'Are you seriously going to stay in _here?_   The whole time? With him?' Ressler's disbelieving voice jolted Samar from her moment of apprehension, leaving a sudden, fierce pang of determination swirling in her belly.  
'Yes, I am,' she said, gritting her teeth. She held Ressler's gaze now, jaw nearly clenched and eyes flickering with her usual determined fire. 'So long as he's calm here, this will work.' Samar paused, glancing just for a split second at Fido still cowering fearfully behind her. 'But you saw what he was like when he was panicking earlier. If that happens again, we won't be able to contain him and then he'll escape.'  
'If people see him wandering around DC there'll be a mass panic and a stampede, not to mention whatever damage he'll do by trampling over everything.' Aram's eyes were wide with the concern that rang even more so in his voice; 'you really think you can keep him calm?'  
'He knows me,' Samar said, far more confidently and matter of factly than she felt; 'and Apatosauruses are social, herd creatures. He can't be left alone, and he needs a familiar face with him. That's me.'

Or at least, so Samar had read. Since leaving him behind the last time, she had found herself researching and reading about Apatosauruses and other dinosaurs on and off in her spare time. At first, she chalked it up simply to missing Fido but after a while... Samar found it interesting to learn more about him, and what he was probably doing back in the past since she left him there. The fact that to a certain degree, Fido really was like a puppy or a small child, had brought a soft smile to her face; each member of the Apatosaurus herd kept the others in line, and they all had to be kept constantly entertained. They didn't handle boredom or loneliness well; which was to say, when bored or lonely, Fido and his herd members would grow destructive –not deliberately, but the simple, frustrated pacing back and forth and sharp swishing of their heavy, whip-like tails could knock things over far too easily.

In this particular instance, Samar was Fido's herd once more. It was up to her to keep him company, and to keep him entertained if they wanted to have any hope of keeping him calm and contained. The question of survival was different this time but still, it was a nerve wracking concept; that keeping a dinosaur calm to stave off public panic fell squarely on her shoulders alone, but her affection for Fido ever since she had been sent back in time the first time round, gave her an impassioned determination to look after him again… One, that though frightening, she wasn't going to give up.

'Keen, Ressler or I will be in that control room with the other agents,' Cooper informed her, nodding earnestly. 'There'll be at least one of us up there at all times while the rest of us try to track down the partner and the other machine. We all have one of these while we're on site-' Cooper handed over a handheld radio '-set to Tac Four, and we can hear you up there as well. Samar, anytime you need anything, just call out to us.' Samar nodded, taking the radio from him and clipping it to her belt. She felt slightly dazed as Aram, Ressler and Cooper all turned and walked away -Aram continuously glancing back over his shoulder in concern. Once again, she had gone from waking up in her apartment on what had felt like a completely ordinary morning, to finding herself in a crazy situation with a dinosaur. She had honestly thought, after the first time, that she would never see Fido again.

And yet there he was.

It all felt a little surreal.

Samar glanced around the enclosure again, absentmindedly running a reassuring hand down the side of Fido's leg.

'Come on, buddy,' she murmured to the snout reaching back down to bump her cheek, 'let's explore your temporary new home, shall we?'

Yet again, it was simply a question of her looking after Fido, of Fido looking after her, and of keeping herself sane… And _waiting_ , killing time until whoever was in the wrong time period, was sent back again.

/*/*/*/*

It took barely five minutes after Samar reluctantly curled up in the small bed in her hut at the edge of the enclosure that night, for the sound of heavy dinosaur footprints to echo outside. It was barely another minute after that, that a blue-ish grey Apatosaurus head appeared in the open doorway to the hut, seemingly floating through the air towards her as Fido apparently sat outside stretching his long neck in to make sure she was still there. Samar sat up in the bed, struggling to stifle a laugh as she felt his soft, leathery hide brush gently against her cheek.

'Fido, buddy,' she laughed, 'you are _not_ going to fit in here.' Fido gave a kind of unimpressed sounding snort in response, resting his head on the floor by the side of the bed and trying to curl himself in and around the hut to fit. Samar shook her head with a hint of amused exasperation. Her gaze panned from the now miserably closing eyes on the floor beside her, all the way along the long neck that sprawled across the floor and out the hut door to where the rest of Fido undoubtedly sat. 'And _that...'_ Samar mused, 'does _not_ look comfortable.' She shook her head again, watching Fido laying there for another brief moment before making a snap decision. 'Ok,' she chuckled, grabbing her pillow and a couple of her blankets, before trying to carefully clamber out of bed without stepping on him, 'come on, you.'

Fido's long neck spiralled slowly backwards and out of the hut at her prompt. Still clutching her pillow and blankets, Samar followed him back out into the main enclosure. She gave a small, amused smirk as she stood next to the patch of grass where he had seemed so comfortable earlier, waiting for him to curl up again. Just like a puppy, he turned himself around in a small circle, trampling the ground for the umpteenth time before lowering himself back down again. Samar waited for him to fall still, before tucking herself into the bend of his leg again as she had done back in the cave. She set her pillow back against his side, and her blanket over her legs, as Fido wrapped his tail and neck around her, now far happier than he had been five minutes earlier.

Samar paused just long enough to stare up at the lights glaring brightly down from the ceiling, and grit her teeth.

'Hey,' she called out into the air, directing her voice in the general direction of the control box and the people within that she couldn't see, 'do you think you could fade the lights out?'

No verbal response came... But surely enough, the bright lights faded to darkness. Fido's eyes, now little more than flickering beacons that shone in the darkness, fell closed as he tucked his head against his side. Samar watched them, smiling softly and allowing herself to sink into her huge, living, breathing dinosaur cushion, and then finally... She fell asleep too.

/*/*/*/*

A sharp tug on the side of her pillow made Samar wake with a jump. Fido had rolled slightly, pulling it sharply sideways and out from under her without even realising it. Samar let out a yawn, stretching out her legs; whoever was in the control room then must have been paying attention, for the lights slowly began to brighten just as she began to move. She rose to her feet to stretch further still, turning on the spot and shaking her head at Fido still so determinedly trying to stay asleep. The dinosaur, clearly still not a fan of mornings, shut his eyes even tighter and ducked his head even further down in the attempt to block out the light.

As he moved, one of Samar's blankets slipped over his head.

Fido jumped, surprised by the sudden, strange sensation blocking his vision. Samar nearly toppled backwards as Fido leapt to his feet. His neck extended straight upwards, his feet turning him around and around on the spot trying to figure out what was happening while the blanket still sat dangling over his head. The corners of the blanket flickered out as he turned and turned and turned again, but it was large enough and heavy enough not to fly off no matter how much he swung his head around. The longer it was stuck there, the more he seemed to panic.

'Hey, hey,' she called out to him, hurrying across the grass to follow as the dinosaur leapt around in distressed circles. 'Fido,' she called out again, a certain level of urgency in her voice now in the attempt to calm him. She paused for a second, ducking from not one, but two trampling feet, until they finally slowed. Fido stood there, shaking, but still enough for Samar to approach and rest a calming hand against his leg. Her hands rose to the base of his neck again, as Fido let out a noise that was somewhere halfway between a wail and a growl, then reluctantly lowered his head to her. Samar gave the blanket a gentle tug as soon as it came within reach, pulling it off Fido's head and back down to the ground. 'There we go, buddy,' she murmured, her voice still soft to calm him; 'better now?' Fido gave a shake of his head, akin to a dazed puppy shaking off a fly, then glared at the blanket now laying in complete innocence on the ground. He let out a distinctly unimpressed snort, then turned his snout back to Samar, nipping gently at her pony tail. 'I'll take that as a resound yes,' she said drolly, before shaking her head in amused exasperation.

'Morning,' a familiar, soft voice sounded behind her again. Samar whipped around on the spot.

Aram stood there, having entered the enclosure and apparently crept up behind her while she was distracted by Fido and his blanket-induced terror.  
'The guys in the control box were going to just drop your breakfast in here to you with their robotic arm or something, but I thought I'd bring it down properly.' Aram gestured at the paper bag, as if by way of explanation; 'I wasn't sure what you wanted though, so I just grabbed a few different things.' Samar grasped the bag when handed to her, then peeked inside; there was a fruit salad, a pastry, and even a grilled cheese sandwich -all of which she had been known to enjoy on occasion. It was nothing fancy but then again, they were all supposed to be working on sending Fido back, not cooking up a storm to make her breakfast.  
'It looks great,' she said, nodding gratefully, 'thank you.' Over her shoulder, an Apatosaurus snout loomed ever closer as the attached neck coiled further and further down. Fido's nostrils flared in and out, his snout darted under Samar's arm and around her front to eagerly sniff the bag. 'Hey,' Samar protested, tugging the bag away from curiously nipping teeth, 'I know it smells good, but this is _not_ for you.' Fido's snout downturned, his eyes blinking sorrowfully at the ground like he had just been smacked on the nose. He had eaten enough of the modern plants in the enclosure for dinner the night before to fill his belly, but it hadn't been difficult to tell that he hadn't enjoyed them anywhere near as much as he enjoyed the plants from his own time period that he was used to.

That was one of the two dilemmas Samar now faced with Fido in the present; sleeping arrangements were nothing new -she could sleep curled into his leg no matter what time period they were in, and the only difference would be whether or not she had the bonus human comfort of blankets and pillows. Feeding Fido and keeping him entertained however, was now something she had to figure out all over again -after all, not only were the plants different, but there was no longer a herd to observe or lessons in leaf retrieval to teach now, either. Samar had led him around the entire space during their exploration of it the night before, encouraging him to taste test each and every different plant in the hope of finding one that he liked, but it had been no use.

Her brown paper bag however, was the first thing to have actually earned his enthusiasm.

And it was almost impossible to deny his attempt at looking as miserable as possible.

'Fine,' Samar muttered under her breath, pulling the plastic tub of fruit salad out from the paper bag, and picking out a couple of pieces, 'have a strawberry, you great goofball.' She held the strawberry out flat on the palm of her hand. The leathery hide of Fido's snout brushed against her fingers, suspiciously eyeballing the fruit for a moment… Before darting rapidly forwards and gobbling it up in a flash. Barely a split second after that, and Fido's head whipped up. His eyes were blinking wide in surprise, and he shook his head in confusion. The tangy sweetness of the berry was all too unfamiliar. Samar and Aram both watched him warily as the dinosaur shook his head once more, processing the strange, new flavour sensation.

Then Fido's tongue flicked out, licking away any trace of lingering strawberry juice from his face in delight, and all of a sudden his snout was back under Samar's arm, wrapped around her front, and staring her in the face in excitement -barely an inch from her nose. Dinosaur feet practically bounced where they stood, desperate for more.

'Are Apatosauruses supposed to eat fruit?' Samar asked cautiously, trying to lean _back_ from the eagerly blinking eyes right in front of her face. She couldn’t see Aram past the snout right there. In fact, she could barely see anything past Fido and his nipping at her in impatient enthusiasm, at _all_.  
'I don't know,' Aram's voice floated hurriedly back, 'modern fruits didn't exist in the Late Jurassic period, so there's no way to know if he can eat them or not.' Samar screwed up her face in thought, wondering whether or not it was safe to give Fido any more.

She didn't want it to be for him, what human chocolate was for dogs, but then again… That could have been said for any of the modern plants in his enclosure, and they had no way of knowing what he could or could not eat until he tried it.

And nothing had upset his stomach _thus_ far.

Samar decided to play it safe, picking out a _different_ piece of fruit from her plastic tub this time, just in case Fido could have some but not others. That way, smaller doses of any that he couldn't eat, wouldn't result in too bad a reaction.

Reaching as far around Fido's _still_ eagerly bobbing snout as she could, Samar held out a sliver of mango.

'Here,' she tried to mutter quietly to Aram, 'you try. See if you two can make friends.' Samar felt the silver of mango slowly tugged from her fingers, which she took as tentative agreement to the plan. Behind Fido, Aram held the mango piece ready.  
'Hey Fido,' he hesitantly called out. Fido's snout turned, glancing at Aram in confusion. Aram waved the piece of mango in front of him for a second longer just to catch the dinosaur's attention, before quickly tossing it into the air.

Fido's neck uncoiled, his head whipping straight upwards to catch it so fast that the resulting whoosh of air nearly toppled both Samar and Aram over. Nonetheless, they both _just_ managed to stay on their feet, staring up at Fido's reaction. There was less surprise this time, but still just as notable an expression of satisfaction. Wide eyes blinked happily, and as Fido lowered his head back to their level once more, his long dinosaur tongue reached out…

…This time to leave a trail of mango tinted drool all down Aram's cheek.

Samar bit her lip, desperately trying not to laugh at Aram now wincing at the slobbery experience she had felt so many times back at her Late Jurassic era cave. Aram wiped the drool away with the back of his hand in disgust, shaking his head as he stared back at Samar. Now, Fido was still bouncing on the balls of his feet, with his tail swishing back and forth in excitement, as he intently watched the fruit salad tub still held tightly in Samar's hand.  
'How did you put up with _that_ for two and a half days?' Aram asked -albeit only half annoyed. Fido bumped gently at Samar's free hand, still eager for more. For a moment, she simply scratched that spot on the top of his head that she had discovered early on, and the dinosaur nuzzled into her hand gladly.  
'He has his moments,' she said softly back. Fido pushed further and further against her hand, thoroughly enjoying the scratch. Samar had to hold her ground to stay on her feet; Fido's size was more than enough for a single nudge to accidentally topple her over if she didn't. She held back a laugh, then withdrew her hand to offer him a chunk of apple. Once again, Fido sniffed suspiciously, before gobbling it up… And very quickly dropping it back on the ground in disgust. Samar and Aram glanced back at one another and shrugged, both struggling not to laugh at the distinctly unimpressed expression on Fido's face. Curious now, Samar laid out one piece of each remaining kind of fruit from her salad, along the ground for Fido to taste.

The melons all proved to be a hit, as did the grapes.

Anything citrus on the other hand, barely received anything more than a sniff and an exceptionally cautious lick.

And nothing seemed to earn an upset reaction from Fido's stomach.

'I have to get back to work,' Aram murmured, while still shaking his head at Fido in amazed disbelief, 'but I think I’m going to have to send someone down with a whole bucket of fruit salad.'  
'Minus the apples and oranges though,' Samar chuckled back. She had given up on keeping the rest of the tub to herself now; she was all too glad to have found something that Fido could eat, and well… She still had plenty of other goodness in her paper bag that he couldn't steal. Now the tub sat on the ground, with Fido desperately trying to lick out every non-apple, non-citrus remnant and eventually knocking it sideways with his snout to tip the pieces all over the floor for easier access instead.

She grinned as Aram took one quick, amused glance back over his shoulder before walking away.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't long after Aram left that a much larger bucket of fruit salad descended into the enclosure via the control box's robotic arm, quickly followed by another bucket of vegetable salad -though notably minus tomato. Apparently, Aram had been very clear in passing on the fact that anything citrus was a no-go.

The lettuce, spinach, and cucumber all proved to be a hit. The carrot sticks on the other hand, for some reason, did not.

Samar amusedly took note of the patterns, as she nibbled at her pastry and then at her sandwich, all the while watching Fido's adventure of modern food discovery; anything soft, leafy, or sweet was apparently good, while anything too crunchy or tangy was definitely not.

Somehow, that seemed to make sense.

Now Fido ambled around the enclosure quite happily, with a thick wedge of watermelon dangling from his mouth.

That, as Samar finished the last bite of her sandwich, posed the next question; how to entertain him. It came, the sudden light bulb moment that struck just as she crumpled the now empty paper bag in her hand. Throwing it to play fetch seemed too boring, both for her and for Fido. No matter how puppy-like Fido was in many of his behaviours, he was _smarter_ than the average dog.

Now, an obstacle course, on the other hand…

Samar grinned to herself, all the while Fido continued absent-mindedly gnawing on his chunk of watermelon. There were plenty of construction related items that still sat around the edges of the enclosure, left there in the rush to finish it up for Fido as soon as possible. Wide fold out ladders and bright orange traffic cones could easily form the first obstacles for the Apatosaurus to step around or through. Trying her best to be discreet, Samar crept towards the pile, laying the traffic cones out in a sort of zig zag shape that Fido would have to weave around in a serpentine fashion, then she dragged over the ladder and laid it down flat for Fido to run over, keeping his feet jumping over each individual bar. A plank a wood became the next obstacle -a balancing beam across the ground for Fido's gangly legs to attempt walking toe to heel. A few barrels now empty of their original plant and soil contents, were rolled along on their sides and set at various points along the course to make something vaguely resembling hurdles.

It wasn't much, but all up it was enough to wind around one end of the enclosure, around bushes and under trees that made obstacles all of their own.

Samar stood back, admiring her handiwork with a satisfied grin. It vaguely reminded her of a far more complex course she'd had to run during Mossad training but then again, that had nothing to do with fun. This course on the other hand, was sure to be entertaining.

Or so Samar thought.

A gentle nip at her elbow jolted her attention back to the present. Fido had caught up to her, the chunk of watermelon now reduced to the curve of green rind dangling from his teeth like some kind of chew toy, as he stared alternately at her and the plank of wood with his head tilted curiously as if to say ' _really? You expect me to do… That?'_ Samar narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips in exasperation, shaking her head at him.  
'Come on,' she tried to prompt the dinosaur, jogging along the balancing plank with ease, 'like this.' Fido simply sat there, his snout still tilted curiously sideways as he watched her. 'Not interested?' Samar scoffed, hands on hips in some combination of amusement and annoyance. 'What about this one?' She weaved effortlessly around the traffic cones, then glanced back at Fido again.

If dinosaurs could laugh, Samar would have assumed from the way Fido gave tiny, bleating snorts, the way his eyes crinkled and his tail flicked back and forth, that he was cackling at her antics hysterically. His tail swooshed out one more time, knocking over at least three of the traffic cones in quick succession, and nearly taking Samar's legs out from under her as well. Thankfully, she saw it coming and jumped over it like a skipping rope -ducking the tail that Fido never seemed to realise the full length and force of was a lesson she had learned early on in her adventures with the young dinosaur. Samar gave an exasperated shake of her head.  
'Well then…' She muttered, 'if you think that's so hilarious…' Samar took a sneaky, sideways glance at the dinosaur who was now amusedly nosing around the beams of the ladder, making sure that no inch of it went unsniffed. That was good. He was distracted. With a tiny smirk tugging at her lips, Samar made the most of the moment where Fido wasn't watching where she was going, and ducked into one of the barrels that still laid on its side under one of the ferns. She sat within, her knees tucked up in front of her, waiting… Just waiting, to see how long it would take Fido to notice she had disappeared.

If the obstacle course was a no go, then perhaps hide and seek would be more to his amusement.

From the open end of the barrel, Samar could see the full set of dinosaur feet still shuffling on the spot as Fido continued sniffing the course. He never could keep his feet still unless he focused on keeping them so. She waited another minute or so, until suddenly… The feet stopped. The sound of the sniffing around her barrel stopped too. There was silence.

Samar watched as the feet began to move, and listened as the sound of sniffing began again, this time with purpose; figuring out she was. Back and forth, the set of feet passed the open end of her barrel, and back and forth she heard them pass the other end behind her. She stifled a laugh; Fido could smell her there, close by, but he was forgetting to look lower than his own head height, and was confused as to why he could smell her but not see her anywhere. The dinosaur feet lapped around the barrel shuffling behind Samar where she couldn't see him. The longer he stayed at that end, the harder it was to hold in the laugh that would ultimately reveal her presence.

And then the feet went still behind her. There was silence.

It lasted longer than Samar would have expected, and she furrowed her brow. Inside the barrel she inched slowly, ever closer to the open end to look out and around the sides. She managed to reach as far as lining herself right up with the edge of the barrel's end… And then all at once, a loud bleating noise echoed in her ears and an upside down Apatosaurus snout appeared out of nowhere right in front of her face. Samar jumped, sending the barrel rolling slowly two or three feet across the ground before coming to an eventual stop.

Fido's feet had fallen still behind her, and then he had extended his long neck all the way over the top of the barrel to lean over and peer inside.

In doing laps around her for a few minutes first, seemingly confused, he had lulled her into a false sense of security.

Samar crawled quickly out of the barrel as it stopped, and immediately rose to her feet, hands on her hips and glaring at the dinosaur who seemed far too pleased with himself.  
'You are getting far too clever for your own good, buddy,' she huffed. Though, as the momentary surprise wore off, she couldn't help but struggle to stop herself from grinning at the dinosaur's clever payback for her hiding from him. That whip-like tail thumped happily on the ground a few more times, until the snout attached far at the other end came to nuzzle gently against her cheek. Samar rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, but gave him a gentle scratch anyway. The nuzzling became nudging, first at her cheek, then her shoulder, then her elbow. The snout stared up at her, feet shuffling eagerly again. 'Oh, you like hide and seek, huh?' Samar chuckled, 'should we try another round?' The dinosaur blinked, then gave another, rather emphatic nudge at her side.

Samar took that to mean yes, she most definitely should hide again.

Still laughing to herself, she ducked behind him, ordering Fido to stay put and not follow her with his gaze. Somehow, he seemed to get the idea… And off she hid again, this time back under her blanket and wedged between two small trees.

Fido found her by creeping up to her, taking the dangling, trailing corner of the blanket in his teeth, and pulling it sharply off, then bleating happily again.

Samar grinned; the happy bleating noise definitely seemed to be Fido's equivalent to laughter, and that only meant one thing… She was successfully keeping him occupied, content, and most importantly -unlikely to trample anyone or anything in distress. Or at least, for the moment anyway.

/*/*/*/*

The second night passed in much the same fashion as the first; with Fido curled up on his favourite patch of grass, and with Samar curled into the crook of his legs -blanket, tail and neck wrapped all around her in cozy, warm layers.

The next morning had far less blanket-induced terror, just as much strawberry enthusiasm, and a while lot more misery, once yet another round of hide and seek wore Fido out. The novelty of being in the present and seeing Samar again was slowly wearing off, and just as Samar had reached the point of the longing to return home outweighing the joy of exploring a new time period the first time around, so too did Fido seem to be starting to miss home now.

He sat on the grass between the trees, with his legs tucked casually under him, and his long neck winding along the ground. He chewed absentmindedly on another melon rind, looking far more contemplative than Samar had ever seen him. The more playful demeanour of his initial joy to see her again was gone, replaced now by an air of deep thought that made the Apatosaurus seem far older and wiser than the one Samar had last left behind.

She sat with him, leaning back against his shoulder as she ate her breakfast pastry that Ressler had brought down to her in the enclosure this time, wondering just as quietly what was on Fido's mind. He let out a deep sigh that given his size, Samar could feel reverberating against her back. She turned her head, glancing over her shoulder sympathetically at him, and running a reassuring hand along the base of his neck.  
'I don't know what to say to make you feel better, buddy,' she murmured softly to him, as his long neck began to coil again and his snout landed softly on her fingertips. Samar gave him another gentle scratch under his chin -that being the only thing she could think of in that moment to try and cheer him up even a little.

Fido's head suddenly lurched upwards, spotting Aram shuffling quickly into the enclosure well before Samar did.

'Hey,' she greeted him, jumping back to her feet, and hurrying over to him, 'did you get the machine working already?' Behind her, and momentary enthusiasm to see Aram again already vanished in Fido's misery, the dinosaur curled back up on the grass again, returning his focus to his melon rind.  
'Yep.' Aram nodded, but there were traces of wariness in his voice as he spoke, making Samar's smile falter slightly.  
'So he _can_ go home?' She asked, cautious now.  
'Mmhmm,' Aram nodded again as he hummed, 'but there's something you're going to want to see first.' Aram held up the machine that was almost unrecognisable now since Samar last saw it. Not only was it larger, but it had a tablet sized screen as well. 'In trying to program this machine to send Fido home, I pinpointed the exact moment in time he left the late Jurassic era.' He paused, almost biting his lip as he stared back at Samar. 'While only two months or so has passed in our time since you last saw him, he was transported here from a point that was about three years after the point in that era that you visited.' Samar blinked, then furrowed her brow as she processed that.  
'So… I've seen him twice in two months, and he…' Samar trailed off for a moment, shaking her head. 'Hasn't seen us in _three years?'_   Aram nodded, and Samar turned, glancing back over her shoulder in disbelief at Fido still curled up, half heartedly chewing on his melon rind. 'No wonder he's grown so much…' She murmured.  
'And in adjusting this machine, I added a visual element,' Aram hurriedly added, gesturing at the screen on the machine in his hand, 'we can see the time periods recently travelled from or those that we're about to send him to. Remember that female dinosaur he was interacting with when we left the first time around?' Samar nodded slowly, furrowing her brow. Aram pointed at the screen as he spoke again; 'This is the moment Fido was pulled out of his time, and into ours.'

Samar dropped her gaze to the screen; there was Fido, and the female Apatosaurus he had been shyly admiring from afar when first exiled from his herd. Now it seemed the two were very much an item -assuming such a concept existed for dinosaurs. The female dinosaur -for some reason Samar felt the inclination to refer to her as 'Lucy'- sat with her legs tucked underneath herself, much like Fido was doing now in the present, but with her head held high as Fido stood beside her, leaning down to adoringly bump his snout against the side of hers. The on screen Fido shuffled sideways away from her to expertly tear down a leaf -at which, Samar couldn't help but feel a small burst of pride- before suddenly vanishing into thin air, leaving behind an almighty cracking noise. Lucy jumped to her feet in alarm, poking her head amongst the fern branches to search for Fido but it was no use. He was gone.

But, Lucy rising to her feet revealed something else that Samar hadn't been able to see before. She furrowed her brow and gestured warily, almost disbelievingly to the screen, a sudden sick feeling settling heavy in her gut.

'Are those…' Samar trailed off for a second, not quite believing that the pale, fuzzy-edged shapes that were less than the size of her little fingernail on the screen were really what she thought they were. 'Eggs?' Samar shifted her gaze back to Aram, desperately questioning with her eyes.  
'Yep,' Aram murmured, zooming in on the view for Samar to see for herself, rather than meeting her gaze. 'And if we look at the same amount of time after that point, that he's spent here…' In a flash, Aram typed in some numbers, fast forwarding the view of Fido vanishing into thin air, through until approximately two and a half days later. Lucy, now even more distressed by Fido's absence, had been pushed further away from their herd because of it, and now stood alone, anxiously wrapped around the four eggs that were starting to wriggle, and then crack.  
'They're hatching,' Samar gasped quietly in Aram's ear, and hurriedly bowed her head in the attempt to make sure Fido didn't hear what they were discussing. 'And he's still stuck here with us.' She took a sideways, sympathetic glance at Fido still laying just a few feet away from them. That made sense of why his joy at seeing her again had fallen flat so quickly; he knew his eggs were nearly ready to hatch when he left and yet, he was still stuck, separated from them. Just the suspicion of thinking that those pale, fuzzy shapes had been eggs that Fido had been torn away from, had bothered her, but now that Samar knew it was reality, she was even more determined to turn back the clock and thwart the villain who had brought Fido to the present.  Not only had he tried to start a mass panic and frighten people, but he had pulled a family apart. Human or dinosaur, Samar knew how much that hurt, and she wasn't about to let it slide. 'Aram…' She murmured again, 'instead of sending him back to two and half days after he left, can you send him back to what would be about only five minutes after?'

Aram winced, wanting to agree, but seemingly hesitant to do so.

'I _could_ , but the number one rule in time traveling is _don't_ change history,' he reluctantly replied, 'it has a domino effect.' Samar bit her lip, contemplating that.  
'We're not changing _human_ history,' she reasoned, 'whether we send him back to a point where his absence has led to him and his family potentially being exiled from his herd again and him missing seeing his kids hatch, or whether we send him back early enough for none of them to even notice he left in the first place, shouldn't change anything for _us_.' Or at least, Samar couldn't think of any reason why it would. As far as she was aware, the asteroid that wiped out dinosaur-kind wouldn't take a detour just because Fido was allowed to see his offspring hatch. If anything, it was the evil genius who brought him to the present and potentially deprived him of that privilege, who was trying to change history. Sending Fido back in time to be there for his family, in Samar's mind anyway, was correcting history back to the way it was _supposed_ to go. She stared back at Aram, the determination even clearer in her voice now; 'all it will mean is that he gets to watch those little ones hatch, right beside their mother.'

Samar could practically see on Aram's face that he was weighing that all up in his mind too. Finally, he tapped at the screen, typing in a few numbers with his brow furrowed in concentration, until he gave a slow, pensive nod.

'Ok,' he agreed. Aram shot her a tiny smile; the time machine was ready to go. Samar's eyes widened for a second; knowing that Fido could finally go home, and what he was going home to, was almost overwhelming. She darted across to the dinosaur, whose curious gaze snapped up to her in an instant.  
'Ready to go home, buddy?' Samar asked the snout that was rapidly rising from the ground to face her at her own height. Fido blinked once, twice, three times, again somehow understanding her words from the tone. His snout bumped softly, but eagerly, against her cheek as if to indicate a resounding _yes_ , then he leapt to his feet. His neck coiled down to wrap all the way around her and rest his head atop hers -the now well established gesture of deep affection for her. An almost desperate sounding whine erupted from his throat, signaling the state of being torn between wanting to go home, and not wanting to leave her. 'I know, I'll miss you too,' Samar whispered, wrapping her arms around the base of his neck. She meant it, as much as she knew there was no way Fido could stay, and it was far more important for him to go back to his own time period and his family, she was always going to miss him. 'I'm so proud of you,' she added, even softer this time, as she tried to blink her tear ducts back into submission before any tears fell free down her cheek, 'but I think there's something even more important that you definitely don't want to miss.' Slowly but surely, she disentangled herself from him, guiding him towards Aram and the waiting time machine.  
'Ready?' Aram asked, eyeing the look on Samar's face that showed how much she was already battling the concept of missing Fido, even more than he eyed the dinosaur's conflicted, bowed head. Samar gave him a shirt nod, pausing to give Fido one last scratch, before darting away from him to stand beside Aram behind the machine. Aram steadied the machine, aiming it carefully at the Apatosaurus standing warily in front of him. 'Ok Fido, just stand right there…' He murmured, as he concentrated on the screen. As if not even listening for a moment, Fido's snout lowered once more, this time to nudge Aram's shoulder -not _quite_ as gentle as he was with Samar, but an appreciative enough gesture for Aram to get the idea all the same. Aram glanced up from his screen, offering Fido another scratch under the chin. 'Yeah, I guess I'll miss you as well,' he added with a soft laugh, unable to hold back a grin.

With that out of the way, Fido shuffled back once more to where he was supposed to be standing, ready to go home.

Aram took careful aim, then a step back, gently pulling Samar back with him. He counted the seconds under his breath, before a bright beam of light streamed from the other end of the machine, until it swallowed Fido whole, leaving behind nothing but the cracking noise he had arrived with.

A breath caught in Samar's throat; just like that, Fido was gone.

'Did it work?' She asked, eyeing the screen that was just out of reach.  
'Hang on two seconds…' Aram muttered back. He darted forwards, clutching the now silent machine and typing in a few more digits. The visual of Fido disappearing from Lucy's side appeared on the screen again. Aram quickly fast forwarded through the female dinosaur's sudden panic, until finally… Exactly five minutes later, Fido appeared in front of Lucy in the same flash and cracking noise with which he had disappeared. 'Look,' Aram added, pointing at the screen -not that he needed to. After all, Samar was already intently watching over his shoulder, one hand clasped loosely over her mouth in relief. Aram let the visual run a few seconds longer, to see Fido bound delightedly towards Lucy and the eggs and for those two snouts to nuzzle each other in utter contentment, before fast forwarding one more time.  
'What are you doing?' Samar's brow furrowed in confusion as she spoke, but Aram didn't respond. Again, he simply pointed at the screen, now showing the imagery of some two and half days after Fido's return.

The eggs were hatching, but this time Fido was right there by Lucy's side, watching the wriggling, cracking shells in both eager and terrified anticipation.

This time Aram allowed the visual to run longer. Side by side they stood there silently, watching on for the full thirty seven minutes it took for each egg to break open and for each of the four tiny Apatosauruses to tumble clumsily around Fido's feet. They watched on with their eyes so intently glued to the screen, it hardly felt like time was passing at all. They watched as Fido helped each of his tiny offspring back to their feet every time they stumbled, and as he tore down leaf after leaf for them to chew -one for each little one.

It was hard to watch, but reassuring all the same. Now that their Blacklister's plan had been thwarted yet again, the time machines all confiscated as evidence, and everyone returned to the correct time periods, Samar knew that there was no possible way ever to see Fido again. Their being shuttled back and forth in time was now over, with no more risk of further trips through the time continuum.

Yet, despite knowing that, there was an odd sense of peace Samar felt wash over her as she watched Fido on the screen. Now, he was no longer the abandoned, struggling, young dinosaur she had first met, but all grown up, with a family and a future ahead of him.

Their time looking after each other was complete.


End file.
